This invention relates to farm implements of the general type wherein multi-sectional tool bars with ground-working tools thereon may be folded rearwardly from an operating configuration to a transporting configuration. More specifically, a telescoping hinge is disclosed which prevents evenly spaced ground-working tools along said sections from conflicting with each other as the tool bar is folded for transporting or storage. Therefore, ground-working tools which are of the same length and evenly spaced to facilitate cultivation of the earth can be utilized without being a hinderance to folding of the implement from an operating configuration to a transporting configuration.
In recent years, earthworking implements having extended spans of up to seventy-five feet or greater have been developed to permit the working of increasingly larger swaths of a field during each pass thereover. The resulting reduction in time and cost of a cultivating operation tends to improve farm productivity. This development of new and wider earthworking implements and new arrangements of tools thereon has been due at least in part to the development of larger and more powerful farm tractors with their greater pulling capacity.
While wider implements are desirable for efficient field use, they must be capable of being folded to a transporting and storage configuration whereby the implement becomes narrow enough for passage through gates and fences and for negotiation of roadways over which it is pulled by a tractor. Therefore, such implements are typically constructed with wing frames which may be folded upwardly, forwardly or rearwardly for transportation or storage. Although implements with wing sections that fold above the center section have proven somewhat successful for three-section implements, folding mechanisms for implements with a greater number of sections or particularly long wing sections are relatively expensive to build and maintain. Implements where the wing sections are pivoted forwardly to positions alongside the tractor also have their drawbacks. For example, the effective width of the tractor is thereby increased by the depth of the implement sections plus the depth of the ground-working tools extending therefrom with the resulting width often being too great for effective transportation and storage. Partly for these reasons, rearwardly folding implements have gained wide acceptance and are well-known in the field of agricultural implements. A problem addressed by many conventional versions of rearwardly folding implements, as well as the present invention, is that of entanglement of the ground-working tools which typically project rearwardly when the implement is folded.
A solution to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,172 issued to Blair and myself which provides for the distal ends of one set of tools being located forwardly of the distal ends of another set of tools which allows them to intermesh without entanglement when the implement is folded. A different arrangement is illustrated in the Honnold U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,347 which includes wing sections shifted by a hydraulic ram from a retracted position within a center section to an extended position where the implement may be folded rearwardly. However, as can be seen in FIG. 1 of the aforementioned patent, power means must be provided to shift the wing sections with respect to the center section. Also, the wing sections can fold rearwardly only when translated as far as possible outwardly from the center section.
There has not heretofore been available an agricultural implement which may be rearwardly folded without entanglement of evenly spaced groundworking tools extending therefrom in the manner and with the efficiency of the present invention.